Fifty-two years after opening their first hospital in Africa, Bob and Belva Foster are preparing to return to Africa again—tis time to see the opening of the new hospital in Lubango, Angola on June 11, 2005.

Bob and Belva, 80 and 78 years old, are now retired SIM missionaries in the U.S. but have been involved in starting SIM ministries in Zambia, Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Mauritius and Reunion. Bob was also International Director of AEF (which merged with SIM in 1998) from 1981 to 1989.

This is the fourth hospital Dr. Bob has been involved with opening in Africa. The first one was in 1953 in Mukinge, Zambia. The second was in Luampa, Zambia, the third in Cavango, Angola.

Dr. Bob was born to missionary parents in Zambia in 1924. His parents, Charles and June Foster, translated the Bible into Kikonde in an area of great medical need. Cerebral malaria killed their little girl and resulted in permanent damage to their son, Edgar. Such dangers in Africa were the reason Bob and his brother Harold were sent back to Canada while their parents continued with church and translation ministry in Zambia.

Four of Bob and Belva's seven children currently serve in Africa as SIM missionaries: Stephen, Stirling and Sheila in Angola and Stuart in Mozambique. Six of their grandchildren and two great-grandchildren currently live in Africa. Another grandchild is a fourth-generation missionary in Afghanistan.

The new hospital in Angola will have 40 beds initially and serve an area of about a million people. The dream for the hospital has been Bob and Belva's as well as their son Stephen's who with his wife, Peggy, are SIM missionaries and have been involved in medical ministry in Angola since 1978. The Angolan Evangelical Association is the sponsor of the hospital ministry within Angola.

Funds for the hospital have come from Samaritan's Purse, a ministry of the Billy Graham Association, USAID and private contributions.

The dedication will be June 11, 2005 during the first Franklin Graham Festival of Evangelism in Africa.